Why I Like...Show N'Tell
A few years ago my mom asked me if she was “a good mother” when I was growing up—now the real answer is a resounding “yes” but I was feeling little mischievous and ticked off the litany of gore that my good Catholic mother provided as entertainment: Man playing God (Frankenstein), eternal punishment via having your liver eaten out (Prometheus), hurtling to the Earth as a flaming cinder (Phaeton), assassination and suicide (Julius Caesar), false imprisonment (The Count of Monte Cristo), being buried alive ("The Fall of the House of Usher"). Obviously, General Electric (the manufacturer of Show N’Tell) looked more at the cultural significance of their titles than whether it would psychologically scar little Jimmy (or me—I was about five when I got this toy).
Even though the stories were filled with good old-fashioned boy-centric gore and violence, the Show N’Tell presentations were extremely well-produced with good narration, voice acting, sound effects and most of all music. I developed an abiding love for classical music because of this toy. The artwork was lurid by today’s standards, but that was another part of its appeal. As a writer, I think it was this toy that inspired my love of storytelling most of all—making me eager to graduate to the source material when I encountered them years later. These were my kind of stories filled with horror and high adventure.As a toy, it stood head and shoulders above the garbage that was deemed “educational” when I was a kid. The reason—it didn’t talk down to us. It presented the stories in a straightforward, intelligent way. There were lessons there (e.g. Phaeton: Obey your parents or suffer the horrifying consequences), but that was secondary to the sheer enjoyment these stories gave me. Again, there was no dumbing down or soft-pedaling of the action—Caesar got it good in the Show N’Tell version. I appreciated the beautiful brutality of it all.
Even though it was an audiovisual toy, the Show N’Tell was still primitive by today’s standards, so the freeze frame action had to be supplemented by my little kid, overactive imagination (which inspired the occasional nightmare)—that really made it fun.In short, I loved this toy—I loved it when I was a kid, I love it even more today because I know that without it, my imagination would be a lot less fertile. So, thanks, mom and dad, for the best toy you could have gotten me.
